US President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night that talks mediated by Pakistan between the United States and Iran were "progressing well," adding that a deal could be made "fairly quickly."
Trump further told the reporters that Iran had doubled the number of Pakistan-flagged oil tankers it is allowing to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, bringing the number to 20.
The President asserted that the regime in Iran has been changed because the old leadership was eliminated in the joint US-Israeli strikes.
Trump was asked whether he is considering putting boots on the ground and replied, “I just have lots of alternatives. We have tremendous numbers of ships over there. We don't need them all because of, you know, the power."
He added, “We're ahead of schedule with Iran. We're weeks ahead of schedule. If you would have said that in three days we were going to knock out 158 ships, their entire navy, which we did. We knocked out their entire air force. We knocked out most of their missiles."
Asked whether Mojtaba Khamenei, who was appointed Supreme Leader to replace his father, is still alive, Trump replied, “He may be, but nobody's heard about him. He may be alive, but he's obviously very seriously in trouble. He's seriously wounded."
Later on Sunday night, Trump posted to his Truth Social platform, “Big day in Iran. Many long sought after targets have been taken out and destroyed by our GREAT MILITARY, the finest and most lethal in the World. God bless you all!"
Trump last Saturday gave Iran an ultimatum of 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on its power plants.
He has since extended that ultimatum twice to allow for negotiations with Iran, most recently on Thursday, when he gave Iran ten additional days.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on Friday that Washington expects Iran to respond to its 15-point proposal to end the war, adding he believes the sides will hold talks this week.